Sue

Sue is a Cranfield Trust volunteer based in London. Since joining in 2012, Sue has worked on almost 30 projects, providing business and management support to 25 small charities.

Sue’s key skills include:

• Strategic Business Management
• Board Development
• Mentoring
• Business Planning, Reporting and Reviews
• Performance Management

Using these skills, Sue has been involved in a number of projects including supporting strategic development for a charity that assists refugees and asylum seekers to build their futures.

Having worked with Cranfield Trust previously on a strategic business plan, the charity reached out once again for some guidance on developing and updating its plan to reflect its current progress, goals and ensure the organisation keeps moving forward.  

Based on the needs of the charity, Sue was selected to be the volunteer for this particular project, bringing with her a wealth of experience and skills best suited to the project requirements. 

During the project, Sue spent time understanding the changing needs of the organisation to fully understand what needed to be included in their updated strategy. By doing this, she was able to provide recommendations on the plan going forward and how best the charity can achieve its goals. 

Q&A with Sue: 

What inspired you to volunteer for Cranfield Trust? 

"After 40 years in the Telecomms sector and 9 years as a volunteer mentor for young people, I wanted to use my commercial experience to help the charity sector more broadly. Cranfield Trust was clearly a well-established organisation in that field and that's why contacted the Trust in 2012. "

What do you enjoy the most about volunteering? 

"Being able to help and enable charity leaders and staff to achieve their goals for client groups who are challenged or disadvantaged -indirectly helping to make the world a fairer place."

What would you say are the main benefits of volunteering?

"Further developing and adapting skills techniques and approaches that are of real practical use to growing charities and organisations with limited resources."

What skills do you feel you have gained through volunteering with Cranfield Trust? 

"The ability to support and guide charity leaders empathetically using an objective and relevant light-touch Action Learning approach. Introducing relevant and timely guides, tools, and techniques. Building knowledge about the charity sector its regulation and ways of working."

How would you describe your volunteer experience with Cranfield Trust? 

"The volunteer experience with Cranfield Trust has been a very good one.  Having worked in and with many different organisations over many years I found the Cranfield Trust to be an organisation with the right ethos and values where staff and colleagues are well-informed, approachable, and appropriately supportive of the volunteers. Also if clients need further help on a particular project, Cranfield Trust is good at finding appropriate volunteer subject matter experts to take on follow-on projects as necessary."

above: feedback received from the charity client for Sue.